The life and times of a domesticated diva who looks around occasionally thinking, "This was not the plan!" and then admits to herself that she wouldn't trade the madness and messes of her family for anything.

Friday, October 30, 2009

My sister did a cute craft with my niece after seeing it in a magazine before passing the idea on to me during a phone conversation yesterday. I remembered to take pictures so that I could tell you all how it's done!

Step Two: Put a thumb tack through each piece. I used two tacks for each mouth.

Step Three: Cover one side of the cardboard (the side with the head of the tack showing) with adhesive-backed felt or foam. Decorate pieces further using Sharpies and additional pieces of felt or foam.

Step Four: Throw the eyes, noses and mouths into a small box or tray and let the kids decorate their Mr./Mrs. Pumpkin Head to heart's content. The tacks only make teeny-tiny holes in the pumpkins, leaving your options open as you can paint or carve the pumpkins later if you wish. This is a great way to include toddlers in the making of jack-o'-lanterns (I showed my 2 1/2 year old the pieces and pointed to the tacks, explaining that they were sharp, and he did just fine.)

Ultimately, the project only took me an hour and a half, costing me nothing as I already happened to have all of the supplies on hand-does it get better than that?! The kids are looking forward to painting their pumpkins tonight, and apart from a few pumpkin-juice spots, I'm thinking that I'll be able to store these until next Halloween, when I can add to the collection. I'd love to write a longer post, but I've entered NaNoWriMo and my dog just ran by with a packet of Skittles (her favorite!) <3